Info Surfaced Regarding GM Whistleblowers and Supplier Relations

General Motors executives leading crash investigations of Cobalt and Ion models where airbags didn’t deploy were passing the buck or quit in the middle of the queries, according to company documents cited by Bloomberg last week.

Since at least early 2011, GM had been investigating the initial 23 crashes linked to the second round of ignition-switch recalls in February. But engineer Brian Stouffer, who was handed the investigation after another team decided to pass, had no idea that Ray DeGiorgio—the project engineer for the Cobalt ignition switch who was suspended with another engineer two weeks ago—had approved a part redesign in 2006. Stouffer also had three bosses within one year, two of whom were in charge of global quality or vehicle safety. In company e-mails, Stouffer received a report in June 2012 that detailed every change of the Cobalt’s steering column through 2008 but which omitted any reference to a newly designed ignition switch with a higher torque rating. Many of his requests to find out why owners with newer cars weren’t complaining of stalling, according to Bloomberg, were stonewalled by other groups within GM.

During a May 2013 deposition for a wrongful death trial that involved the faulty ignition switch, Stouffer said he determined that 100 related complaints out of 500,000 cars was a “very, very low complaint rate” but was perplexed that some switches replaced under warranty had different torque specifications with identical part numbers.

Beyond suspending the two engineers and announcing an employee missive to “Speak Up for Safety,” GM has not released any further details until it completes an internal investigation. Other media reports linking GM’s insistence on rock-bottom bids from its suppliers—which forced its former wholly-owned parts subsidiary Delphi, the producer of the bad switches, to cut corners—aren’t revelatory. Automakers have always demanded low cost and fast turnaround from suppliers, but the question that remains is why GM continued to accept parts that were out of its own specification. In Congressional testimonies early this month, CEO Mary Barra said it was common practice to accept substandard raw materials like steel but could not explain why GM would do the same for a fully assembled part.